Log Time is the podcast of The Backloggers where we talk about anime, manga, light novels, and how the podcast always seems to go on way longer than we intend it to.
Oh snap, it’s a double post! Happy Jingle Jangle day!
In this episode, the full Backloggers crew focuses in on the popular anime Death Parade. We have an in-depth discussion about the thematic elements and motifs present within the show, along with how the presentation of those elements affected those themes.
A few seasons past, I started a podcast with my incredibly handsome friends Owningmatt and the equally handsome GeneralTofu about anime and, specifically at the time, what all shows we were watching. If you’ve seen it (which is quite literally one person besides ourselves so congratulations to you, dedicated fan of a very small anime blog), you might have caught a thirty minute discussion (read: accidental rant) surrounding a show that had come out during the spring 2015 season of anime called Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru noha Machigatteiru darou ka or otherwise known as Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? It’s probably an easy guess that this anime was based off of a light novel series with a name that long, and while I haven’t read the source material, the show itself is interesting.
The idea of Dungeon is to take your typical MMORPG anime storyline but make it based in an actual fantasy realm instead of a game. Inside of this realm, heroes fight dangerous monsters in ever more difficult levels of a dungeon most likely constructed by the same architect behind the Wayside School building (shout out to Scholastic Book Fairs). As they explore, heroes collect gems that litter the 
different levels. These gems are found inside monsters, with the larger and more powerful gems residing in higher level monsters and more dangerous floors of the dungeon. The heroes use these as a sort of currency by exchanging them for money and resources that they need to continue to take on more and more difficult challenges. Heroes are sponsored by various gods and goddesses who form a higher social class and rely on their heroes’ worship and gem collection in order to grow their power. In exchange, the gods and goddesses give the heroes special powers as well as use their own abilities to assist in the exploration of the dungeon.
The interesting aspects of this show come from the fact that this entire universe is based around the difficult floors of the dungeon that the heroes face. Currency, sports, jobs, etc. are all centered around either the heroes who go into 
the dungeon or assisting the higher class of gods and goddesses with their daily lives. Even most of the powers the gods exhibit are centered around helping the heroes, with some gods being legendary armor and weapon smiths and others holding monopolies on wine and food trade. There are even jobs surrounding support classes for the hero. Some people are hired to do management and consultation for the heroes, while others are hired to collect gems and hold the different heroes’ items while they fight, sharing a percentage of the profits found.
This show had a lot of potential and though it didn’t live up to it, being a bit run-of-the-mill, sans the very elaborate and creative structure of the world and setting, it was a fun ride. However, the extent of my thirty minute discussion during the podcast was actually not about the plot or setting of Dungeon but on a very central theme that the series explored: The idea of chivalry. Specifically, the idea of courtly love that was spawned by chivalry.
Log Time is the podcast of The Backloggers where we talk about anime, manga, light novels, and how Albert Wesker should never be allowed to drive at night given his vision impairments.
Back because of popular demand of the three people who do it, it’s the Log Time Podcast! In this episode, Owningmatt and Mythos discuss strange games about games, the Summer 2015 season of anime, relating Noragami to American Gods, and so much moar!
Thanks Krista (keytajoy) for making our Logo for this week’s Log Time!
http://keytajoy.deviantart.com/
Intro and Outro song: “Platform” by Or4nges
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/458694
So I’ve finally moved in about one thousand five hundred miles away from where I used to live and have a full-time job with slightly odd hours so it’s been a bit harder to make updates. On top of that, I had a bit of writer’s block while writing this and ended up solving it by starting up a second blog for my own passion project of creative writing at StoryTimeWithMythos. However, I will say that now that I’m moved in and finally have some free time, I’m dedicated to updating for you guys with more interesting articles and the like. The next few articles will be more about specific subjects rather than saluting an anime from my youth as I enjoy those a lot better and feel they’re much stronger discussions.
Even today, one hundred years after the remnants of the pioneers finally explored the frontier and civilization started booming, we’re in love with the idea of The West. The Western genre has covered a historical hundred-year gap from the end of the frontier to today with films and shows that explore the ideas from that time in America. It was that wonderful part of history where those who made a mad dash for land carried a gun, lived by their own hands, and occupied lawless towns near inhospitable and harsh wastelands. It’s not just America that’s been fascinated by this idea either. Many countries around the world have loved to make their own ideas from this setting. In fact, the reason the 
famous subgenre of Spaghetti Westerns is called as such is because they were Italian films. Nowadays, you don’t see many westerns being made. Cinema fell in love with the later genres of the 20th century that took hold after the boom of space odysseys in the late 60s through the 70s that changed science fiction from pop serials to the big hit movies of the later decades. However, that doesn’t mean the genre has died out. Recent films like The Good The Bad, and the Weird put their own unique twist on the genre and Clint Eastwood even stepped back into his old shoes to do an oscar-winning and absolutely beautiful revisionist version of the Western in Unforgiven. One of my favorite ideas that has evolved from the Western genre, though, is to take the plot, style, and characters of the Western and apply them to a new frontier to explore. Particularly, in the case of Trigun, I’m referring to the Space Western.
As this post comes rolling through, it seems that half of the Summer 2015 anime has already aired and most people probably have already formed opinions about what they’re watching this season. As standard procedure though, I’m going to roll out what my thoughts are on these series and tell you why I continue watching the anime that I’ve chosen.
To make up for how long the last post ended up being, I’ve decided to make a slightly shorter post re-hashing an article I wrote on my Tumblr a while back. I’ve gained further knowledge about the topic since I’m actively involved within a fansub group, and I can now further apply that knowledge to the topic I’ll be writing about.
To start off, I’m not an editor for a fansub group, so I can’t say that I know everything about editing or even that I’m doing it right, but I do know how editing is theoretically supposed to work. For example, taking subtitles from an actual simulcasted release of CrunchyRoll (CR) or Funimation and making a few line changes does not make you a fansubber in my eyes (although that’s a great way to start into the editing portion of fansubbing). While this isn’t what the post will be about, it does factor into the problem that I will describe below with a single picture.
Also, spoilers of Golden Time ahead.
…Hey Riki, have you discovered the secret of the world?
*NOTE: This post contains HUGE SPOILERS about the visual novel and anime of Little Busters!/Little Busters! Refrain. If you have any intention to play or watch the anime without having the story ruined for you, stay away from the main content of this post. It won’t hurt your understanding of the concepts if you do decide straight into my post, but you’d be doing yourself an injustice by not reading the story first.*
Visual novels are a pretty interesting medium in regards to all of the other mediums within Japanese culture. They’re not quite stories, but not quite games; they are both combined to create a story told through audio and simple images. As a lover of both mediums, I get really excited when someone tells me about a good visual novel, considering lots of visual novels are… pretty lacking in the story department. Although, since it’s a medium that isn’t particularly common to find outside of Japan, you can mostly distinguish good novels from bad ones by simply looking at if they’ve been translated into English. Yet, the community always translates a certain company’s content as soon as possible.
Log Time is the podcast of The Backloggers where we talk about anime, manga, light novels, and anime version of John Wilkes Booth.
In this episode, Owningmatt and Mythos discuss rebooting old series, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and the differences between the novels and the anime, and Kantai Collections’ invisible admirals.
Thanks Krista (keytajoy) for making our Logo for this week’s Log Time!
Intro and Outro song: “Platform” by Or4nges
Log Time is the podcast of The Backloggers where we talk about anime, manga, light novels, and make lewd jokes about romancing people with tentacles.
In this episode, Owningmatt and Mythos discuss the mediocrity of Strike the Blood, moe versions of deadpool in Nyaruko: Crawling With Love!, shows that stretch jokes way too far, Nisekoi season two, Hanayamata, and Hello! Kiniro Mosaic.
Thanks Krista (keytajoy) for making our Logo for this week’s Log Time!
Intro and Outro song: “Platform” by Or4nges
Log Time is the podcast of The Backloggers where we talk about anime, manga, light novels, and where after trying to get the intro right four different times generaltofu ended up having to do it for Mythos.
In this episode, the full Backloggers crew (Owningmatt, generaltofu, and Mythos) discuss if fansubbing anime is really necessary anymore and if so, why?
This is in response to a post by the blogger Dark_Sage who reviews fansubs and anime.
Thanks Krista (keytajoy) for making our Logo for this week’s Log Time!
Intro and Outro song: “Platform” by Or4nges
Edit: Sorry for the video actually saying Episode 3 instead of Episode 4. I forgot to change that over when we put the title onto the video. My bad! – Owningmatt93
The Backloggers 